The Energon Pub

Received Hench yesterday and not impressed. With his upscale anime alt mode I felt like I was holding a child's Fisherprice truck not a 3rd party TF. The joints didn't work very well and the detail and transformation were too plain. What worked fine on Huffer, missed the mark with Hench. I am feeling that Cogz and Dune Runner are probably going to follow the same suit if they are staying the same height.

On the plus size, the plastic is good quality and the head mold is good.

Well, it's pretty clear that they simply upsized their deluxe molds as opposed to doing any new tooling. The effect is kind of like a "high quality" knockoff.

Well this thread is a shocker, isnt it ???

My Hench is still sitting in my POL so I cant offer a fair opinion. But other than poor joints, it seems that you were expecting the figure to be more Hasbro-ish ? I like the G1 simplicity of the figure from the video reviews I have seen. I hope any joint issues can easily be corrected with a few coats of nail polish.

I have to agree with the OP on this one. The mould would have worked perfectly well on a smaller scale but the detailing is too sparse, many tolerances are off (ridiculously tight and loose balljoints) and it's all because iGear got greedy, and thought people wouldn't notice or care about their none-too-subtle upscaling hack.

Their entire minbots line would have been much better scout sized.

I must disagree. This argument is based on memory as I'm nowhere close to my Hench at the moment so it may misrepresent some things.

It is indeed obvious that Hench (like the rest) were increased in size due to fan response. Very little was changed in the upsizing, though my understanding is the shoulders were redone, leading to a couple extra months of delay.

I think that there is a misconception that bigger must mean more complicated, and I don't think it needs to be. Hench, for his simplicity, mimics his G1 Altmode and Robot mode almost precisely. Oddly enough I found his leg transformation to be unique among all my Transformers. Those who claim simplicity and "what works for small scale doesn't work at large scale" I must ask this: How would you see him changing with his new size?

The Brawn I have at home holds all the same poses as a Hasbro deluxe does, has full articulation and a pretty decent handgun and headsculpt. I have no complaints about him or Cosmos.

I say bring on the rest.

Mkall wrote:I must disagree. This argument is based on memory as I'm nowhere close to my Hench at the moment so it may misrepresent some things.

It is indeed obvious that Hench (like the rest) were increased in size due to fan response. Very little was changed in the upsizing, though my understanding is the shoulders were redone, leading to a couple extra months of delay.

I think that there is a misconception that bigger must mean more complicated, and I don't think it needs to be. Hench, for his simplicity, mimics his G1 Altmode and Robot mode almost precisely. Oddly enough I found his leg transformation to be unique among all my Transformers. Those who claim simplicity and "what works for small scale doesn't work at large scale" I must ask this: How would you see him changing with his new size?

The Brawn I have at home holds all the same poses as a Hasbro deluxe does, has full articulation and a pretty decent handgun and headsculpt. I have no complaints about him or Cosmos.

I say bring on the rest.

Agreed. Hench isn't perfect with respects to execution or transformation and certainly could have been more detailed but I'm pretty pleased overall with him. I basically got what I expected and he makes a great classics Brawn.

I do disagree with iGear's decision to raise the price of these. I view that as shady business by iGear versus a move driven by necessity.

DevastaTTor wrote:

Mkall wrote:I must disagree. This argument is based on memory as I'm nowhere close to my Hench at the moment so it may misrepresent some things.

It is indeed obvious that Hench (like the rest) were increased in size due to fan response. Very little was changed in the upsizing, though my understanding is the shoulders were redone, leading to a couple extra months of delay.

I think that there is a misconception that bigger must mean more complicated, and I don't think it needs to be. Hench, for his simplicity, mimics his G1 Altmode and Robot mode almost precisely. Oddly enough I found his leg transformation to be unique among all my Transformers. Those who claim simplicity and "what works for small scale doesn't work at large scale" I must ask this: How would you see him changing with his new size?

The Brawn I have at home holds all the same poses as a Hasbro deluxe does, has full articulation and a pretty decent handgun and headsculpt. I have no complaints about him or Cosmos.

I say bring on the rest.

Agreed. Hench isn't perfect with respects to execution or transformation and certainly could have been more detailed but I'm pretty pleased overall with him. I basically got what I expected and he makes a great classics Brawn.

I do disagree with iGear's decision to raise the price of these. I view that as shady business by iGear versus a move driven by necessity.

Thirded. I find him to be a very good toy and near-perfect Brawn. A bit pricy, yes. But still good.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:

DevastaTTor wrote:

Mkall wrote:I must disagree. Etc.

Agreed. Hench isn't perfect with respects to execution or transformation and certainly could have been more detailed but I'm pretty pleased overall with him. I basically got what I expected and he makes a great classics Brawn.

Thirded. I find him to be a very good toy and near-perfect Brawn. A bit pricy, yes. But still good.

Fourthed. (is that a word?)

As far as a mod I would have liked, I do have one. I would have preferred if the head cowling was able to drop down. I've seen a custom mod that does it, and I think it would have made the head more usable, would have been easy to pull off, and is more cartoon accurate.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.362742963815649.88593.283547855068494&type=3



In any event, I like him. I find his detailing is comparable to many of my deluxes, especially Bumblebee/Cliffjumper that I have him next to.

rpetras wrote:

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:

DevastaTTor wrote:

Mkall wrote:I must disagree. Etc.

Agreed. Hench isn't perfect with respects to execution or transformation and certainly could have been more detailed but I'm pretty pleased overall with him. I basically got what I expected and he makes a great classics Brawn.

Thirded. I find him to be a very good toy and near-perfect Brawn. A bit pricy, yes. But still good.

Fourthed. (is that a word?)

As far as a mod I would have liked, I do have one. I would have preferred if the head cowling was able to drop down. I've seen a custom mod that does it, and I think it would have made the head more usable, would have been easy to pull off, and is more cartoon accurate.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.362742963815649.88593.283547855068494&type=3


In any event, I like him. I find his detailing is comparable to many of my deluxes, especially Bumblebee/Cliffjumper that I have him next to.

Fifthed (go with it )
I really like this guy.

That mod is really nice, wish I could do it

rpetras wrote:As far as a mod I would have liked, I do have one. I would have preferred if the head cowling was able to drop down. I've seen a custom mod that does it, and I think it would have made the head more usable, would have been easy to pull off, and is more cartoon accurate.

This is the one thing I wish they could've done in the upsizing, but alas it was not to be.

I'm sorry that you're not impressed with it Stormrider but there are those of us who are happy enough with it.

One cannot expect a Hasbro-level toy from 3rd parties. They will always do it differently, for better or worse.

Mkall wrote:

rpetras wrote:As far as a mod I would have liked, I do have one. I would have preferred if the head cowling was able to drop down. I've seen a custom mod that does it, and I think it would have made the head more usable, would have been easy to pull off, and is more cartoon accurate.

This is the one thing I wish they could've done in the upsizing, but alas it was not to be.

I'm sorry that you're not impressed with it Stormrider but there are those of us who are happy enough with it.

One cannot expect a Hasbro-level toy from 3rd parties. They will always do it differently, for better or worse.

These are all valid points and I am glad that people have posted them. I do like the bot mode a lot. I guess my shock was that the alt mode style, size, plastic type, and giggly wheels made me feel like I was holding a 3 year old's toy. And I have never had that feeling before with any other figure.

Stormrider wrote:

Mkall wrote:

rpetras wrote:As far as a mod I would have liked, I do have one. I would have preferred if the head cowling was able to drop down. I've seen a custom mod that does it, and I think it would have made the head more usable, would have been easy to pull off, and is more cartoon accurate.

This is the one thing I wish they could've done in the upsizing, but alas it was not to be.

I'm sorry that you're not impressed with it Stormrider but there are those of us who are happy enough with it.

One cannot expect a Hasbro-level toy from 3rd parties. They will always do it differently, for better or worse.

These are all valid points and I am glad that people have posted them. I do like the bot mode a lot. I guess my shock was that the alt mode style, size, plastic type, and giggly wheels made me feel like I was holding a 3 year old's toy. And I have never had that feeling before with any other figure.

I'll agree with you on that too. It's too close to the G1 toy, and didn't take upsizing well, whereas Cosmos' form worked well because it wasn't a slavish copy to his G1 toy form.

I'd've preferred something closer to what Brawn's altmode was supposed to be but I keep him in robot mode, so it's not that big a deal I suppose.

Mkall wrote:I'm sorry that you're not impressed with it Stormrider but there are those of us who are happy enough with it.

And I am one that is pleased as punch with him.